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CINCINNATI: 
■NQUIBKR STEAM PBE68E8, VINE STREET. 









CORRESPONDENCE. 

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Bloomington, Indiana, 
SiOMA Chi Hall, June 27th, 1861. 
Wm. W. Fosdick, Esq.: 

Sir — We, the undersigned Committee, on behalf of the Lambda Chapter of tlie Sig- 
ma Clii Society, tender you our hearty thanlis lor your very able Poem delivered before 
our Society on last evening, and respectfully request a copy for publication. 

Bespectfully Yours, 

BYFORD E. LONG, "» 

JOHN H. LOUDEN, L Committee. 

THOMAS W. ZOOK, | 



Bloomington, Indiana, June 27th, 1861. 
Messks. Byfoed E. Long, John H. Louden, Thomas W. Zook, 

Committee of the Lambda Chapter of the Sigma Chi Society: 
Gentlemen— I have had the honor of receiving your letter of this date, requesting a 
copy of a Poem delivered by myself before your Society. In reply thereto I have 
pleasure in saying that I will have great satisfaction in submitting a copy thereof, 
at an early period, to your Society, to whom, individually, I beg leave to tender my 
heartfelt thanks for a most genial and satisfactory reception in your young but 
pleasant city, and a trusting hope that prosperity may follow the fortunes of the 
University from the beginning to the end of her Chapters. 

Most Bespectfully Yours, 

wm. W. FOSDICK. 







PROGRESS OF FREEDOM. 



Ye Pliilhelleiiic brethren, let us pause, 

Ye Sigma Chi, before the lir.~t, great cause; 

You heaven's azure sea, so boundless spread, 

With golden stars is thickly islanded; 

And on the stream, the hill, and prairie broad, 

All nature's silence tells of nature's God. 

For who can dream of far Urania's sphere. 

But think of Him, with reverence and fear, 

Who drew the va^^t, unfathomable plan 

Of countless sj'stems, measureless to man; 

And in the strange infinitude of stars, 

Whose limit even soaring fancy bars, 

Spread the round moons of Jove upon the skies, 

And Saturn's rings of richest rainbow dyes; 

On silver Venus, fairest of the stars, 

Shed snowy radiance; and led-plumed ilars 

Fiercely upon his tiery course to run. 

And angel Mercury that fronts the sun. 




Say, who hath measured these? or known what plants. 
Trees, rocks, birds, beasts, inhabitants; 
What realms of tire, and heavy, rolling main ; 







What mountain stream, what green, enameled plain; 

"What forms sublime burst on the wondering sight; 

What wise intelligence, robed in light, 

These unknown oi'bs contain? thus all bedecked 

In splendor by the mighty Architect, 

Whose wondrous laws as absolutely rule 

The universe as merest molecule; 

To whom atoms and angels are the same 

In the great scale of being, in substance, name; 

In magnitude, earth as a drop of dew. 

All worlds in yonder crystal depths of blue 

Small as the microscopic globe 

The morning rose wears on her crimson robe. 

Master of Nature ! what a changeful state 

This earth endures, which erst thou didst create; 

What strange mutations hath it undergone, 

Since first o'er Eden broke the amber dawn, 

When angels stood with Adam on the mount. 

And airy gold ran down from heaven's fount 

And poured through Eve's bright, yellow locks, 

And the green moss o'erran the great, graj^ rocks. 

That formed the wall uplifted to the skies. 

The verdant boundary of Paradise, 

Within the sun and shadow of whose bowers 

Earth robbed the rainbow hues to paint the flowers. 

But Death usurped the spot; and at his breath 

The blossoms, blasted, fell — the wind sighed Death ! 

Yea ! sadly sighed, and instantly grew chill — 

And lo I the angels, from the tree-crowned hill, 

All vanished ! the bright-hued birds took wing, 

And through the thick, green leaves the serpent shook his sting. 

Then years brought on war, pestilence and grief, 
The hidden worm bred in the rosebud's leaf. 
And in the chambers of the human heart 
Woe took her seat, and Hope saw light depart. 
A blight fell on the world, and on mankind. 
And an eclipse struck farthest nations blind. 
And empires stood in darkness, double gloom, 
And all the earth was but a living tomb. 





Then from Judean plains, as shepherds watched by night, 

Across the darkness swam a silver light, 

And crowned the heavens, as with a diadem. 

And like a lamp hung over Bethlehem. 

All in that hour of tho night so still, 

An angel chorus sang "Peace ! good will 

On earth to men ;" and lo I sweet Hope came down 

Again to earth, encircled with a crown. 

Above all gems and shining treasures priced, 

And gleamed in fiery, golden letters — Chkist! 



So, since that day, the other Seasons lift 

Their coronets to Winter for that gift; 

And earth awoke, as when a chrysalis. 

New born, puts forth its Psj'che wings of bliss. 

Once more the Spring unbinds the frozen rills 

From the deep bosom of the cloud-crowned hills. 

Sows the bright dew-drops in the twilight hours, 

And reaps a harvest of the morning flowers. 

Now Summer woos the bird and butlerflj'. 

The ear to charm, and to delight the eye, 

And hangs a heavy drapery of green 

'Twixt earth and sun, a cheerful, wavy screen. 

Now Autiimn bids the winds bring all their lutes 

And sing to him, as, couched amid bright fruits, 

He drinks tho wine juice, and he slowly weaves 

A coronal of burning, crimson leaves. 

And purple, feathery flowers of the Fall; 

So sits, till dropj)ing o'er him like a pall 

In shroud of leaves he hath his funeral. 



Come, let us stand upon this Bridge of Time, 
Whoso piers are years, and from its arch sublime 
Survey the flood of ages at our feet, 
Which ebbs and flows where day and darkness meet, 
And through the dim mist of the fading Past 
Behold the wreck of empires, vague, but vast. 
That man from Memory in her musing mood 
May gather wisdom, and perceive its good. 








Lo ! there a spot the eye can hardly seize — 
A silent wilderness of marble trees — 
'Tis Nineveh! behold her towers loom 
Like sullen mountains through a sea of gloom. 
Here Baalbec's pillars lone and speechless stand, 
The Assyrian's pride is now a silent land! 
Now turn to Memphis — canst thou hear a strain 
Like matin breeze.-' springing from the main? 
Alas! thou canst not — not a sound doth come! 
Deserted Memphis! Meuinon's voice is dumb — 
All! all is still, and Isis is a dream. 
But Nile! thou still art there, eternal stream ! 
Where is the line of Pharaohs? mighty kings! 
And, Ibis! whither stretched thy scarlet wings? 
Time's iron finger touched them year by year, 
And, save the Pyramids, all disappear — 
But ye, amid this desolation, stand 
Titanic giants of the desert sand. 
Promethean heroes! laying bare each heart. 
Who smile as Time essays his fruitless art. 



Behold Jerusalem ! that sacred fane, 

Which cost more Christian lives Christ's tomb to gain, 

Than would have served, with his mild precepts armed. 

To win the world, and leave mankind unharmed! 

Though Europe's shame, yet must she own the loss. 

The Paynim Crescent crushed the Christian Cross, 

As erst did Roman arms and Boman might 

Burst like a blazing meteor at nigiit. 

And stdke old Salem in the dust, 

And with a million spears, a single thrust. 

Hurled down Byzantium — ruin heaped on wreck, 

And towers tumbled at the Roman's beck. 

But mark! the Samson of the age, in turn. 

Behold the Norsemen come! the dwellings burn; 

From Seven Hills goes up the blackening smoke, 

And Tiber trembles at their thunder stroke! 

O'er prostrate column, and o'er shattered arch. 

See the red demons of destruction march. 

And mark the statues topple till they fall — 






Till devastation lauybs in ruined liall. 

"Where now is Cffisar's once imperial homo? 

Speak, old colossal skeleton of Komel 

Alas I thou art as dumb as Memphis— Night 

Lowers on the world — Chaos vails the light, 

And double darkness mantles Europe's j)lain, 

AVhile Ignorance and Superstition reign. 

The shadow of the Norse gods, like a pall, 

Falls from the pole, and gloom hath swallowed all ! 

Will no day dawn? will not a single spark 

Break through the black and luminatc the dark? 

Yes! for where barbaric hordes controlled 

In dark Germiinia, see, a lamp of gold. 

Lo! there is Faust, majestic master seer, 

And see around how glows the atmosphere, 

As when at lirst, amid the void of night, 

God said "Let there be light, and there was light!" 

He grasps a magic talisman — behold ! 

The sable clouds assume a robe of gold; 

How spreads the light — how dazzling are the rays — 

The villaged plain grows bright — dark mountains blaze- 

From land to land the still increasing flood 

Of airy fire penetrates the wood. 

The field, the hamlet, cities — all in turn. 

All unconsumed, in light celestial burn. 

Whence comes this radiance in the wilderness — 

These towns ablaze? It is the Press! the Press ! 

Oh, wizard Faust! how bright thy burst of flame, 

As if to man a second iSaviur came. 

The clouds' black banners, now so slowly furled, 

Let in illumination on the world. 

Until 'twould seem so bright the Press' birth, 

The sun might catch efl'ulgence from the earth. 

But yet oppression, bigotry and wrong 

Still tyrannize upon the humble throng; 

And knavish priests the Mother Church disgrace, 

"Till the mild Virgin hides her holy face; 

And in the temple of the Christian God 

Wolves crept in cowls, where saints of yoro had trod. 

Till trembling peasants talked in whisper tone; 







Nor could kings dare to call their souls their own. 

Then rose a man of hero frame, and mood, 

Stern for the right, and bolder for the good, 

Resolved to perish or reform the age, 

To die the martyr, or to live the sage. 

Heroic Luther! God gave thy defense. 

The Council heard thy thundered eloquence; 

How like Horatius then thy form arose, 

Who calm surveyed thrice thirty thousand foes; 

Thy triumph was complete — when Chivalry 

Laid her bright shield before black Bigotry, 

And all the arms of knighthood fell back foiled. 

Thou cleft the dragon's crest as he lay coiled. 

Then Persecution, with its iron scales, 

Shot forth its crimson tongue from mount and vales, 

Until the affrighted host in terror fly — 

In vain seek succor under Europe's sky. 

Pause for a moment — is there not a shore 

Which once the great Columbus did explore, 

Far o'er a weedy wilderness of seas — 

Unfathomed oceans? Think! the Genoese 

Steered for the "West, and not from quaking fear. 

But with the star of Hope alone to cheer. 

Then will ye quail? Behold the dragon press! 

Wilt brave his fury or the wilderness? 

Welcome, inhospitable coast ! They fly 

From tyrant kings to nature's liberty, 

Home, friends, and all their progress can not clog ; 

A cloud of angels, like a great sea fog. 

Fans full their sails, and hides them as they go, 

While on the shore writhes the pursuing foe. 

Years have rolled on — America hath grown 
A home to them, and dearer than their own; 
Fire-worshippers of freedom in the West 
Have made the desert Paradise. Distressed 
Of Europe hither fly, with hope's increase, 
The young for life, the old to die in peace. 
Around them thrown their free, protecting laws. 
And their free worship of the first great cause. 







But lo! the modern mistress of the waves, 
Snow-white Albion, chiims them as her slaves; 
Albion claims them — the loud gun afar 
Booms with its thunder, and the flash of war 
Reddens the greenwood of the glowing West, 
And frights the dove of peace from her soft nest. 



Oh! who shall speak those weary, \\:irring years, 
Eecount the widow and the orphan tears ? 
The faithful soldier, who exposed his form 
To Summer's blaze, and Winter's bitter storm, 
With gnawing hunger, nights without repose, 
And crimson tracks on sharp-scaled ice and snows ; 
And see him now, his scanty raiment bind 
More close about him, to exclude the wind, 
Grasp his cold gun, with fingers frozen, numb, 
But steadfast in determination, dumb ; 
Why suffers he this torture of the frame? 
Behold yon eye of blue! dost know his name? 
That calm, majestic, tall, seraphic grace. 
Where greatness meets all goodness in his face. 
For him and freedom braves the soldier all — 
With him to flourish or with her to fall ! 
God of the free I upon that hero's crest 
Sits the young eagle of the infant West. 
Hope holds his shield, and valor draws his sword, 
And every freeman marches at his word. 
That peerless paragon — that sun-like one — 
The first, the last, tlie only Washington ! 



That inauspicious day — untoward time — 

Beheld a stranger from a sunny clime, 

Come, like the moon, across the shaded deeps. 

While o'er our land the blackening war cloud sweeps; 

A stranger soldier, not unknown to fame. 

Came when the hosts, 'mid battle's fiercest flame, 

Fought like the troops the Borealis shows, 

Kiding the crimson clouds o'er Polar snows. 

This moon of France the tempest backward rolled, 







And fringed the curtains of the sky with gold. 
Thrice welcome, then, as is the memory yet, 
Gaul's noblest son, immortal Lafayette ! 



At last 'twas won! — at last the land was free. 
Thy triumph Washington ! and liberty, 
For freedom's soldiers, thee, her chieftain sent, 
A diamond Alp too poor a monument! 

Long years have passed, each to its silent grave, 

Like the red sun low sinking to the wave. 

And through the dusk each month appears a ghost. 

Leading the days, a dim, departing host. 

Oh! there was Spring, with bosom heaving full 

Of dappled blossoms, such as niaidens cull 

"When their young eyes behold the earth one scene 

Of sunlight flooding universal green ; 

When the small wood-flowers in sweetness first are born, 

And bow, good morrow, to the welcome morn; 

When the white dawn throws ope his golden gates, 

And the elastic air invigorates ; 

While all the world awakens from the dream 

Of drowsy Winter — forest, field and stream, 

And bird, and bee, and butterfly are rife — 

If ature reviving teems with active life. 

Anon the Summer, yellow-mantled, comes, 
Dropping red peaches and the purple plums, 
And harvesters are heard with voices blithe, 
With silver sickles and the shining scythe, 
Laying the harvest level with their feet. 
The russet billows of the heavy wheat ; 
And at the noon, by labor overwrought. 
The cool, green shadows of the groves are sought, 
Where the cold water bubbles to the brink 
Of velvet grass, refreshingly they drink ; 
And there the farmer rests upon the sod. 
The first of freemen — life beloved of God. 









Then comes the Autumn— loveliest of them all— 
Tlie nnilti-colorod angel of the Fall, 
Bedight in robes vermilion, gorgeous gold, 
Rich blazing scarlet, purples manifold ; 
And, dazzling red, his many-mottled cloak. 
That shames the sun behind his vail of smoko. 
AVith crisping tread Fall stalks through frosty morn, 
And the laden wains behind him groan with corn. 
Whose broadsword blades and plumes wave in the wind, 
Blessed gift, of God— the manna of mankind! 

Last comes old Winter, in his ermjne cloak, 

Blows on his fingers 'neath a leafless oak. 

And when thick night englooms the landscape, black, 

As in a shroud, he o'er the field takes track, 

To where he sees, through darkness o'er the plain, 

The red fires glowing through the window pane. ' 

Lung lines of light steal out beside the door, 

And merry dancers trip it on the floor; 

Gay music rings, and loud the joyous cheer 

That speeds the parting, greets the coming year. 

But, hark! a jnoan upon the midnight blast- 
Old Winter turns an angel of the Past! 
And rising to a stature God-like, grand. 
From sea to sea behold Columbia's land, 
So broad that eve scarce westward j^inks from sight, 
When, lol morn stands at orient, clad in light. 
A year hath gone, yet o'er this vast extent, 
By freedom conquered, through a continent. 
Her march has been as morning's joyous march 
Cheering all things beneath the broad, blue arch— 
A march of Progress, gladdening as she comes. 
Despite of cannon smoke and thunder drums. 
Yet there's her flag, with white and crimson bars. 
Thick fretted o'er with sister silver stars; 
The banner of the brave, whose states' increase, 
Is strength in war, and mightier in peace! 
Whose soldiers come, e'en of their own consent. 
When war assails, from all the continent; 





A million hands to draw the battle blade, 
When honor calls us for the right's crusade, 
And Freedom's figure, shining, leads the van, 
In peace or war, upon this march of man. 
Nor shines one star more glorious on her breast 
Than Indiana, crown-pearl of the West, 
Where Learning spreads her precious fruited tree, 
And every gale breathes balmy liberty. 

Dear, noble land! the scepter shall depart 

From Freedom's grasp, ere fsilsehood touch thy heart. 

In peace thou mayst be wayward as a child. 

Yet let the tempest of Disunion wild 

Arise, and thou wilt show thy giant will. 

And, Christ-like, bid the tumult, "Peace, be still!" 

Once thy fair river, with its silver sheen, 

A thousand miles away from Fort Duquesne, 

Wound through the wilderness of endless green — 

A forest land, of flowers and of cane, 

The wild beast's haunt, the savage's domain; 

Where Boone and Kenton wandered in the shade, 

And Clark led on that last and gi-and crusade; 

Where Progress conquered from rude Nature's hands 

The first of realn;s, the loveliest of lands, 

And oped on man another scene to bless — 

An Eden blooming from the wilderness — 

Whither the pilgrims of the world might come. 

The more than Mecca of all Christendom. 

Her greenwood priests, the Druids of those years 

Are scarcely gone — the race of Pioneers 

Who planted here those occidental gems, 

Our schools, and cities, our Jerusalems ! 

Land of the mighty woods, and rivers bold, 

The miracle that all mankind behold, 

Thou canst not count a century of age, 

Yet what an era on historic page, 

Since on Ohio's summer wave of blue 

The Ked Man plied his arrowy canoe, 

And Indian maiden hung her neck with bells, 







Made from the white and spotted crimson shells ; 

Eyed like the fawn that leapt hcneath the bowers, 

Knee deep she waded, barefoot, through the Howers. 

Then came the days when, through the misty morn, 

The early boatman wound his mellow horn ; 

His craft at ease upon the current floats, 

Up through the hills die out the long-drawn notes. 

While here and there bold Agriculture's arm 

Broke in the forest shade the sunlit farm, 

Felling the greenwood giants in their ranks. 

Dotting with cabins both the river banks. 

And then, as if by magic, from the gloom 

Kich cultivation filled the vale with bloom; 

Till lo! behold! out from the forest's heart 

White villages and yellow grain-fields start; 

And, bursting through the silence of the shade, 

The Ax was followed by the hum of Trade; 

'Till now, from mountains to the ocean's shore, 

Tiie wheels of Traffic keep incessant roar ; 

And on Ohio floats that commerce rich, 

Fdroseon by thee, oh wise, prophetic Fitch, 

Who begged thy bones might he beside that stream . 

When water-walking monsters, moved by steam. 

Should plow the waves, and through the valley scream! 

Thy spirit now. exultant o'er its grave 

Kejoices, primal sovereign of the wave. 

Land of the West! what Paladins of old 

Have prouder record than thy woodsmen bold '.' 

What realm presents a spectacle so grand 

As this, where foot of king could never stand. 

And no nobility have ever trod. 

Save those true fashioned by the hand of God ? 

A Constitution framed in wisdom's mold, 

Of diamond letters, on a ground of gobi, 

Whose ample a>gis throws protection broad. 

Like sweet salvation from the Word of God. 

Where myriads now say grace at plenty's fea.'t, 

And every honest man is nature's priest; 

The plainest plowman, turning the green sward, 






A choice and chosen vessel of the Lord ; 
Where noble Labor, from his workshop dim, 
Comes forth and joins in freedom's holy hymn. 
And earth may see a people truly great, 
Who are themselves the sovereigns and the state ; 
Thus to progress, as long as shines the sun, 
For God hath pledged it to our Washington ! 
A land whose future words may never tell — 
United, free and indestructible — 
That time shall, in its splendor full behold. 
When the last knell of tyranny is tolled, 
And Freedom's genius shall, like Cortez, stand 
Upon a peak o'erlooking all the land, 
With giant oceans lying on each hand, 
And with an archangelic voice proclaim 
Welcome to man, in God and Freedom's name! 



And now shall this, our best beloved of lands, 

That like a paragon of nations stands, 

Kock-like in strength, and brilliant as a star, 

Be roused by demons into civil war? 

Forget the price by heroism paid 

For these Hesperides of beauty, made 

By labor's arm, and patriot hearts to save; 

Shall this be wrecked in one vast, common grave, 

While bloody ruin triumphs o'er the scene. 

And dyes with crimson all the fields of green ? 

Damned be the tongue that bids our land divide. 

And damned the wretch that joins the traitors' side. 

Upon Mount Vernon's summit shall the ghosts 

Of the departed great rise up in hosts. 

The heroes of the greatest war of time, 

The one grand Revolution, most sublime, 

Soldiers and sages, patriots, every one 

Assembled round the shade of Washington. 

Up from their graves would spring the recent dead, 

Boused from the ashes of their earthly bed, 

And fly in spirit on that mount to stand, 

The guardian angels of our native land. 








Wouldst thou not rise, oh! ini<,'hty warrior sage, 
Start from the shadows of thy Hcrmit.a£je, 
Swift to that holy mountain, Vornon's crown. 
Thine angry brow clothed with an awful frown 
To hear the whisper of a traifnnis band 
Hissing like hidden serpents through the land? 

Oh, blue-eyed Sago of Ashland! thou wouldst rise 
Swift as a rushing meteor's arrow (lies, 
Fast to the gathering of that ghostly band. 
That rise in spirit to protect the land; 
Camped like a cloud of angels on that height, 
The past and present hand in hand unite; 
The ancient dead, with those that newly died. 
Their shapes and shades all grouping side by side; 
The Southern sage and Northern all in place, 
And he of Marshfield, wisest of his race, 
In archangelic tones repeat the word 
That erst within the Senate Hall was heard, 
Whose echoes shall roll to the farthest shore— 
Union now, and Union icvkrmork! 






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